e-AMUSEMENT GATE

Konami has just started a new service called e-AMUSEMENT GATE. As the name implies, the service is sort of an extension of their already well-known e-AMUSEMENT service. e-AMUSEMENT GATE can be used from PCs, mobile phones, or smart phones, and is meant in part to help users connect with each other. For example, there are message boards for each game where players can interact and Konami will post news regarding the latest events and campaigns for the game.

In addition, e-AMUSEMENT GATE can be used to transfer data to a new card in the event that your old card gets lost and you can also change your PIN number using the site. As of right now, the site only supports one game, Quiz Magic Academy VIII, but other games are promised to be supported soon.

Sounds great of course.... but will we get it in America? I doubt it.

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was hoping for a gate to the rest of the world. oh well.

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Well, I tried to sign up for a Konami ID (you need one to get onto the site) and there's a link to a registration form in the confirmation e-mail they send. It asks for a Japanese ZIP code (I think) among other things, and I'm pretty sure it would be a crime to lie about the ZIP code.

tl;dr Probably not.

CAPACITY GATE

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OH wow I didn't notice that

I can enter with my just US account of Konami ID services. Looks like there's no area restriction in order to use e-AMUSEMENT gate.
Once you log on, you are requested to make your profile.
Requires to fill a nickname, date of birth, bloog type (me dunno) and the Province.

Now, you can select some info (cannot translate, ssl page) - All are optionals.. in the next screen after that, you are requested to select an Avatar. There's about 80 avatars handy, so select one. Once you select an avatar, your main page are displayed.
Its like a mini-site, you can have all services of e-AMUSEMENT, including PASELI. As Pie said, only QMA8 is currently supported.
Mini-Mail zone is where you sent text to other friends.

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But remember, this isn't Konami's fault. They tried to get arcades to adopt e-Amuse and are still trying by making it even easier to use, but most establishments aren't willing to shell out the extra cash for a system that works on one of their games.

Arcades probably are not willing to set it up period.

Well it makes sense why arcades aren't willing to get this feature. They look at the possible revenue of each option and they choose the one that will get the most for the least amount spent. This also backs up the reason why many arcades don't upgrade their machine in general.
But more on topic... this looks like it could be quite the useful feature. I'm pretty sure this will do quite well, especially with DDR and IIDX. I can see the message boards as being a very useful tool to post tournament information, etc.

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Well, I would say that more arcades choose to upgrade over buying a new cabinet, but there hasn't been an upgrade for a DDR cab in the US since SuperNOVA. Konami hasn't even released X2 upgrades for X1

More like Konami isn't willing to adopt a network structure/hardware like Pentavision's. That or local.


Actually there were SN2 kits (for SN1 dedis) and X kits EXIST (see: Jersey Gardens [and thus X2 kits should be possible]) but they're too lazy to release them.

I meant there haven't been an update for any cab since the SuperNOVA cab, that is there was an upgrade kit for SN2 from an SN cab . I'm not so sure SN2->X cabs really exist outside of importing. And it's not that they're too lazy to release them it's that the hardware requirements for all the different hardware that exists in the US makes it very unfeasible to release consistent and reliable hardware conversion. Trust me, I'm sure that Konami would release kits if they could because it means more $$$ for them.

Loctest begs to differ:
http://www.ddrfreak.com/locations/locations.php?action=displayLocation&locationID=25565


They specifically stated that all future upgrades would require a SN cab. This means they were not even thinking about bootlegs or imports (which they should never be anyway) and thus there was only one machine type and hardware to worry about. Trust me, Konami does not know how to make $$$.

Location test != final product. Konami surely does know how to make money, this isn't an amateur company ran by a bunch of 12 year olds. The problem is that the companies working with Konami find very little interest in what Konami is offering. Betson made the final decision of not offering pad upgrades with X->X2 kits and I wouldn't doubt that they made the same final call for SN/SN2->X upgrades. The TRUE final decision boils down to the arcade operators. As have been said before, they want to maximize profit and minimize cost, and thus, will upgrade at minimum times. A good example is our push to get an X2 machine. The manager is having a hard time providing a proof of future income to show that an X2 machine will generate more income than the current SuperNOVA machine currently generates. Betson knows how arcade operators work and has to convince them that they need this or that machine/upgrade and they probably saw that providing upgrade kits for older SN machines to X machines as having very little marketability considering the amount of Extreme machines that still exist vs SuperNOVA.

Jersey loctest is an upgraded SN cab, it's not the JP cab that was in Cali/Ohio. Loctest is proof of concept. As far as Pads, there's no need to upgrade (downgrade) SN pads to X ones. Konami doesn't need to sell that. They need to sell volume and regain the trust of arcade ops and distributors. Then after everyone has bought kits for a while, they can offer Dedicabs for the then-aging SN cabs.

But I'm pretty convinced that the team in charge of most of these decisions is extremely stupid. There've been so many chances for things to go well if only they'd done the right thing. Oh well :v

Betson has always been stupid when it comes to DDR.

Yeah, but it isn't really Betson. When people blame "Betson" they're really blaming "the division of Betson under Konami's complete control," - the blame should be directed at Konami, really.

If they were on top of their game (for example bringing Betson cabs to Japan, so they could get feedback in Japanese instead of having Betson tell them "We have some hardware problems" which can be translated a million different ways) we probably wouldn't have had the problems with SN2+ cabs.

So what you're saying is that the location test for X3 in Japan should use a western dedicab?

The thing is, X2 pads aren't bad at all, they just don't last near as long as they claim. Only one pad has been reported to have the cross-wired issue (as far as I know).